Participants
Selected studies included 1473 patients, who presented 1656 episodes of
acute asthma. A higher percentage of males than females were enrolled in
all the studies (Table 1). The age range of the enrolled patients was
between 0.58 yrs. to 13 yrs. Two studies21,26 reported
younger patients (mean age 12.4 months21 and 19
months26); however, none of them enrolled patients
with bronchiolitis or first wheezing episode.
Four studies20,25,26,27 reported the family history of
asthma (12% to 75% of the patients included had a positive family
history). Only two studies26,28 reported the positive
asthma predictive index (API) status (30–38% had positive API). Six
studies20,22,23,25,26,28 reported the use of ICS in
the past (range from 20% to 100%). Sung et al.20 and
Upham et al.23 stratified patients according to the
use of ICS, while Nuhoglu et al.22 and Alangari et
al.25 only reported the prevalence of ICS used. In the
Razi et al.26 trial, the use of ICS was a mandatory
inclusion criterion, but in the Razi et al.28 trial,
patients with budesonide more than 400 mcg/day or those who change their
doses in the last 2 months were excluded. The acute asthma severity
scores at randomization were moderate to severe in four
studies23-26, but using different clinical scores
(Table 1).